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Monday, January 13, 2014

small is beautiful

Get big or get out,
said the Secretary of Agriculture to American farmers in the 1970s. But as the consequences of widespread industrialism and general upheaval began to show their faces, ,the environmental movement was born and another voice, E.F. Schumacher's, rang out against the agribiz giants: not so fast.In small is beautiful, he argues against
industrial and agricultural giantism that is not only unsustainable
energy-wise, but malignant to the health of developing economies. Taking
partial inspiration from “Buddhist economics”, a perspective which considers
the impact modes of production have on the persons involved,Schumacher argues for small-scale production
and the implementation of ‘appropriate technology’; that is,forms of technology that can be implemented
into existing societies and increase production gradually, allowing developing
nations to adjust without causing the kind of disruption that results in
gigantic slums and spasmodic bounts of famine and war. This also applies at the
individual level, for appropriate technology can allow laborers to still be
personally involved in their work,not
alienated from it as happens with assembly-belt mass production.Although penned in the 1970s, this is a work
which has only increased in relevance:environmental solutions constantly defer to the need for localism, from
community-supported agriculture to roof-mounted neighborhood solar panels
feeding into the local grid. Our lifestyle hasn’t become any more sustainable;
our rate of progress down the dead-end road oftotal consumption has only increased in the last decades.Small is
beautiful is definitely a work to consider if you have any interest at all
in environmentalism, ecology, sustainability, or the economy’s impact on
society.

Related:

Virtually anything by Wendell Berry, whose 'Great Economy' shares the same humane vision, as does the philosophy of distributism.